He's still the go-to Guy

Despite physical setbacks, BAA's Morse isn't dropping out of the race

The question is how he'll handle Monday, when Guy Morse becomes Zelig, popping up here, there, everywhere on his usual race-day tour.

"It's unclear how many places I can be," says the Boston Athletic Association's executive director, sitting in a wheelchair at his headquarters in the Back Bay. "Sometimes, I've appeared to be in more than one place at one time. That may not be the case this year."

This year, the 56-year-old Morse is going through a near-Biblical visitation of physical torments. First, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer last year. Then, at the beginning of February, Morse slipped on an icy sidewalk and ruptured both quadriceps tendons.

Yet he's managed to stay on the job, directing preparations for both the US Olympic women's marathon trials Sunday and the 112th Boston race Monday. Through it all, Morse has remained his usual sanguine self, the tranquil presence at the center of the annual April whirlwind.